Welcome to .txtLAB, a laboratory for cultural analytics at McGill University directed by Andrew Piper. We explore the use of computational and quantitative approaches towards understanding literature and culture in both the past and present. Our aim is to engage in critical and creative uses of the tools of network science, machine learning, or image processing to think about language, literature, and culture at both large and small scale.

.txtLAB Internships 2016: Computational Cultural Advocacy

.txtLAB is pleased to offer four undergraduate internships for the coming academic year. This year’s theme is “Cultural Advocacy: Women in the Public Sphere.”

The aim of the internship is to address how women are both mis-represented and under-represented in the public discourse of book reviewing. Book reviews represent a significant cultural outlet that bestow authority, and yet recent research by our lab and others has shown a variety of ways that women are still being framed as belonging to a nineteenth-century set of values, if they are represented at all.

A team of 4 interns will be responsible for crafting a year-long advocacy plan to address how book reviews represent women, using a combination of computational approaches and social advocacy by engaging with key stakeholders. We are looking for motivated, self-directed students who want to make a positive change in the world. 2 interns will be drawn from the Faculty of Arts and 2 from the School of Computer Science. The internship award is worth $1,000.